JERUSALEM, Feb. 26 -- A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up outside a crowded nightclub in Tel Aviv late Friday, police said, killing at least four bystanders and shattering a fragile, unofficial truce that Israeli and Palestinian leaders had hoped would mark the end of four years of deadly conflict.
Police said the bomber detonated his device in a crowd of young people waiting to enter the Stage nightclub on the city's popular Mediterranean beachfront promenade, about 600 yards south of the U.S. Embassy. More than 50 people were injured in the explosion, many seriously, police said.
Medics haul a body through the chaotic scene after the explosion outside the Stage nightclub near Tel Aviv's beachfront promenade.
(Oded Balilty -- AP)
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Israeli television showed scenes of dazed and wounded young people being treated by paramedics in the street outside the nightclub, surrounded by pulverized cars and shattered storefronts. Dozens of police and emergency workers cordoned off the area to collect evidence.
Palestinian security officials told the Associated Press that the bomber has been identified as Abdullah Badran, 21. Israeli officials arrested five people, including two of Badran's brothers and the local imam, the news service reported.
Israeli troops imposed a curfew on the West Bank village of Deir al-Ghusun, Badran's home, on Saturday, the Palestinian officials said.
Earlier there were several conflicting claims of responsibility by Palestinian groups, but none was definitive and all were subsequently denied by senior members of the organizations. An Islamic Jihad cell initially asserted responsibility for the attack, but a top official of the group in the Gaza Strip denied the claim and said his organization was continuing to honor an agreement with the Palestinian Authority to observe an informal truce with Israel.
The bombing -- the first suicide attack in Israel since Nov. 1 -- came 19 days after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared at a summit in Egypt that the two sides were ending hostilities.
No formal cease-fire agreement was signed or declared, however, and Palestinian groups such as Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, said they were not bound by Abbas's declaration. Nonetheless, leaders of both organizations, which have carried out numerous suicide attacks against Israelis in recent years, said they would observe a period of quiet as long as Israel did not launch provocative attacks against Palestinians.
"This homicide attack in Tel Aviv illustrates once again why Israel is insisting on the dismantling of the infrastructure of terror," said Gideon Meir, a senior official in Israel's Foreign Ministry. "The agreement between the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist organizations, or the understanding between them, has no meaning whatsoever. There's only one language terrorist organizations understand, which is total war."
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians' chief negotiator with Israel, condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms."
"Whoever was behind this attack," Erekat said, "has one aim in mind: sabotage the peace process, undermine Palestinian national interests and undermine the democratic Palestinian process which the world has witnessed" since the death of Yasser Arafat three months ago. That process led to the election of Abbas as Arafat's successor.
Meir said it was "too early to say" how Israel would respond. But, he said, "Israel cannot compromise when it comes to the war against terror and the protection of the people of Israel. We here in Israel hope that the pattern where Israel is making gestures toward the Palestinians and is being responded to with suicide attacks is not repeating itself."
Israeli officials have said they expected terrorist groups to try to sabotage the fledgling rapprochement, and they indicated that they would not automatically retaliate for every Palestinian attack. In recent weeks, Israeli officials have accused Iran and the radical Lebanese group that it supports, Hezbollah, of trying to foment trouble.
Israel has made several gestures to advance the newest detente with the Palestinians. It released 500 Palestinian prisoners last week and has promised to release 400 more within three months. The Israeli military announced that it had stopped its policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinian attackers and their families, and it also halted its targeted killing of senior Palestinian militants.
